SIMON HEFFER: The inept and arrogant Sir Humphries of today...

A rare political event happened this week. The chairmen of all 33 of the House of Commons’s select committees published a report calling for an urgent inquiry into the future of the Civil Service.

Their joint action was not only rare but timely — for civil service incompetence was given as the reason after the admission that the Government’s new Universal Credit benefit will not reach its 700,000 intended recipients as planned by 2017.

This was especially embarrassing because it is part of the Coalition’s flagship policy to streamline the benefits system and help ease the transition from welfare dependency to work.

The chairmen of all 33 of the House of Commons¿s select committees published a report calling for an urgent inquiry into the future of the Civil Service

But this shocking failure is only the latest of a series of Whitehall scandals over the years.

They are, I believe, the result not only of institutional incompetence but due to the pig-headed resistance of an unhealthy number of key staff who still espouse the welfarist, subsidy culture of the Left.

One of those responsible for this mess is the Department of Work and Pensions’ permanent secretary, Robert Devereux, who refuses to admit that the civil servants in his charge have made mistakes.

No wonder that Iain Duncan Smith has called for an inquiry into the shambles.

Morale in Whitehall — an organisation that was once the envy of the world — is now remarkably low. Also, the ethos of an honest and impartial service has been lost.

Unfortunately, there is a disgraceful arrogance among mandarins that is characterised in the select committees’ report as ‘a failure to learn from failure’.

Bernard Jenkin

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Public Administration Select Committee, Tory MP Bernard Jenkin, has highlighted another issue: the refusal of ministers to address structural flaws in the Civil Service.

Of course, the last Labour government must share most of the blame for the way it corrupted and politicised the Civil Service.

Mandarins were promoted not on merit, but because they were yes-men or through a quota system that discriminated in favour of sexual or ethnic minorities. As a result, strong, independent leadership in the Civil Service collapsed.

One only has to look at the pathetically partisan performances of Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood and his predecessor, Gus O’Donnell, have been, to see how standards have dropped.

Mr Jenkin’s solution is that Whitehall jobs should be paid better in order to attract better quality candidates.

First, though, the dead wood must be removed.

However, I fear one big obstacle to reform: the Prime Minister.

The truth is that David Cameron is very reluctant to engage in a wholesale review of the Civil Service.

One reason, I venture, is that such an exercise doesn’t interest a man who seems to be only motivated by superficial issues that he thinks have more short-term, vote-winning potential.

Yet it is his duty, as prime minister, to heed the grave warnings of parliament’s select committee chairmen and to listen to experts in government and in constitutional practice, who are appalled by the Civil Service’s failings.

Unless Mr Cameron orders a Royal Commission to sort out this shambles, some departments of state are in danger of imploding.

If they do — and with so many of our ministers being incompetent, too — heaven knows how this country shall be governed properly.

Raising MPs’ salaries by 11 per cent will do nothing to attract to the Commons those with an ethic of public service.

Instead, it will create a greedy class of professional politicians with no experience of the private sector.

Years ago, it was argued that by paying MPs, the working class would be encouraged to try to enter the Commons – but most Labour MPs now are well-heeled middle class people (lawyers, journalists, political advisers, ex-polytechnic lecturers etc).

If people want to make big money, they should choose another calling. In any case, there seems to be no shortage of people wanting to be MPs.

Mark Harper

Immigration minister Mark Harper has said that if employers paid young British workers better, we wouldn’t need immigrants to do those jobs our youths won’t take.

This view is utterly absurd.

Not only would higher wages attract more immigrants, but the reason that many young Britons remain on the dole is the generous welfare benefits they receive.

The answer is to reduce benefits, thus encouraging employment, and giving potential immigrants less reason to believe our streets are paved with gold.

Chris Patten, chairman of the BBC Trust, has refused to re-open the internal inquiry into the Corporation’s disastrous handling of the Jimmy Savile scandal.

This is despite the fact that the man who conducted the inquiry says he erred in ignoring vital evidence submitted to him.

Chris Patten, chairman of the BBC Trust

Lord Patten even threatens, pompously, to sue an MP who says he’ll publish the evidence regardless.

Lord Patten has already made a big enough mess without compounding his errors. Many at the BBC, including senior management, are deeply embarrassed by his complacent incompetence. Isn’t it time he just quit?

Chief Inspector of Schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw, has highlighted how an estimated 250,000 children are being taught in primary schools deemed inadequate while another 1.5 million attend ones that need to improve.

This is the depressing result of Labour’s poisonous doctrine of dumbed-down education. Only by fraudulently giving teenagers inflated grades at GCSE and A-level could they pretend that Britain was keeping up with other nations.

Sir Michael is right to call for testing of seven and 14-year-olds. But radical reforms of the curriculum and teaching methods are essential, too.

Is there any bandwagon which David Cameron doesn’t want to jump on?

First, he flirted with those wanting to replace the Syrian government with al-Qaeda and its allies.

Then he affected familiarity with Nelson Mandela by calling him ‘Madiba’ (the name of the Xhosa tribe to which he belonged).

Also, this week, he said he was a member of ‘Team Nigella’ — provoking a stiff rebuke from the judge in the court case involving the TV cook. Such behaviour by a Prime Minister is utterly demeaning.

The Cypriot-born economist Sir Christopher Pissarides won the Nobel Prize after being a passionate advocate of the euro.

He now says he was wrong and, with stagnation and massive unemployment in the eurozone, believes the currency should be dismantled. Good for him for admitting his mistake.

I also hope he will recommend me and that handful of other journalists (including the editor of this paper) who have argued for years that a one-size-fits-all currency could never work.

Boris Johnson said his bikes-for-hire scheme in London would not cost taxpayers a penny.

However, it is losing at least £11 million a year, and now Barclays bank has cancelled its £25m sponsorship.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson cycling in Goswell Road

With use of the bikes down by 30 per cent since last year, Boris may struggle to find a replacement.

After this £225 million project has gone wrong, why trust him over his idea for a new £95 billion airport in the Thames Estuary?

Sadly, Boris himself probably doesn’t care much because he hopes to leave his mayoralty to become an MP again and then Tory leader.

But if a man can’t run a bike scheme, how can he run a political party — let alone the country?